Vehicle-surrounding monitoring device and non-transitory computer readable storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10427693-B2
Application number	US-201716087184-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 16, 2017
Priority date	Mar 29, 2016
Publication date	Oct 1, 2019
Grant date	Oct 1, 2019

Abstract

A vehicle-surrounding monitoring device includes: a line-of-sight direction determination section that determines a direction of a line of sight of a driver; an obstacle determination section that determines whether an obstacle is disposed in a predetermined direction around a vehicle; and a notification control section that notifies notification information indicating a determination result of the obstacle determination section in an other direction around the vehicle with a notification unit when it is determined that the direction of the line of sight of the driver is one direction around the vehicle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle-surrounding monitoring device comprising:
a line-of-sight direction determination section that determines a direction of a line of sight of a driver;
an obstacle determination section that determines whether an obstacle is disposed in a predetermined direction around a vehicle; and
a notification control section that notifies notification information indicating a determination result of the obstacle determination section in an other direction around the vehicle with a notification unit when it is determined that the direction of the line of sight of the driver is one direction around the vehicle, wherein:
the notification unit includes a voice output unit that outputs voice information as the notification information; and
when it is determined that the direction of the line of sight of the driver is the one direction around the vehicle, the notification control section controls the voice output unit on an other direction side around the vehicle to output the voice information indicating the determination result of the obstacle determination section in the other direction around the vehicle.

2. The vehicle-surrounding monitoring device according to claim 1 , wherein:
when it is determined that the direction of the line of sight of the driver is the one direction around the vehicle, the obstacle determination section prioritizes a process of determining whether the obstacle is disposed in the other direction around the vehicle over a process of determining whether the obstacle is disposed in the one direction around the vehicle.

3. The vehicle-surrounding monitoring device according to claim 1 , wherein:
the notification control section notifies the notification information indicating that the obstacle is disposed in the other direction around the vehicle with the notification unit when it is determined that the obstacle is disposed in the other direction around the vehicle, and notifies the notification information indicating that no obstacle is disposed in the other direction around the vehicle when it is determined that no obstacle is disposed in the other direction around the vehicle.

4. The vehicle-surrounding monitoring device according to claim 1 , wherein:
the obstacle determination section determines whether the obstacle is disposed ahead of the vehicle; and
when it is determined that the direction of the line of sight of the driver is the one direction ahead of the vehicle, the notification control section notifies the notification information indicating the determination result of the obstacle determination section in the other direction ahead of the vehicle with the notification unit.

5. The vehicle-surrounding monitoring device according to claim 4 , further comprising:
an intersection entry determination section that determines whether the vehicle enters an intersection, wherein:
when it is determined that the vehicle enters the intersection, and the direction of the line of sight of the driver is the one direction ahead of the vehicle, the notification control section notifies the notification information indicating the determination result of the obstacle determination section in the other direction ahead of the vehicle.

6. The vehicle-surrounding monitoring device according to claim 1 , wherein:
the notification unit includes a display unit that displays display information as the notification information; and
when it is determined that the direction of the line of sight of the driver is the one direction around the vehicle, the notification control section controls the display unit on an one direction side around the vehicle to display the display information indicating the determination result of the obstacle determination section in the other direction around the vehicle.

7. The vehicle-surrounding monitoring device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a vehicle-surrounding information acquisition determination section that determines whether vehicle-surrounding information is acquired from an external device of the vehicle, wherein:
the obstacle determination section determines whether the obstacle is disposed in a predetermined direction around the vehicle using the vehicle-surrounding information acquired from the external device of the vehicle.

8. The vehicle-surrounding monitoring device according claim 7 , wherein:
the vehicle-surrounding information acquisition determination section determines whether vehicle-to-vehicle information through vehicle-to-vehicle communication is acquired as the vehicle-surrounding information; and
the obstacle determination section determines whether an other vehicle is disposed as the obstacle in the predetermined direction around the vehicle using the vehicle-to-vehicle information.

9. The vehicle-surrounding monitoring device according claim 8 , wherein:
when it is determined that the other vehicle is disposed in the predetermined direction around the vehicle, the notification control section notifies the notification information with the notification unit when a relative distance between the vehicle and the other vehicle is less than a predetermined distance.

10. The vehicle-surrounding monitoring device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a careless state determination section that determines whether the driver is in a careless state, wherein:
when it is determined that the direction of the line of sight of the driver is the one direction around the vehicle, the obstacle is disposed in the one direction around the vehicle that is a same direction as the direction of the line of sight of the driver, and the driver is in the careless state, the notification control section notifies the notification information indicating that the obstacle is disposed in the one direction around the vehicle with the notification unit.

11. The vehicle-surrounding monitoring device according to claim 10 , wherein:
when it is determined that the direction of the line of sight of the driver is the one direction around the vehicle, the obstacle is disposed in the one direction around the vehicle that is the same direction as the direction of the line of sight of the driver, and the driver is not in the careless state, the notification control section does not notify the notification information indicating that the obstacle is disposed in the one direction around the vehicle with the notification unit.

12. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium that stores a computer program that controls a control unit of a vehicle-surrounding monitoring device to execute:
a line-of-sight direction determination process of determining a direction of a line of sight of a driver;
an obstacle determination process of determining whether an obstacle is disposed in an other direction around the vehicle when it is determined that the direction of the line of sight of the driver is one direction;
a notification control process of notifying a determination result of the obstacle determination process with a notification unit including a voice output unit that outputs voice information as notification information by outputting the voice information indicating the determination result of the obstacle determination process in the other direction around the vehicle with the voice output unit on an other direction side around the vehicle.

Assignees

• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Mizuno Wataru
• Ogasawara Akihiro

Classifications

• B60W2554/00

  Input parameters relating to objects · CPC title

• B60W2050/143

  Alarm means · CPC title

• G06F3/013

  Eye tracking input arrangements (G06F3/015 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B60W2040/0818

  Inactivity or incapacity of driver · CPC title

• B60W30/18154

  Approaching an intersection · CPC title